Quote before the verb

Started by Vawmataw, February 29, 2016, 10:30:46 PM

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Vawmataw

When you quote someone using the verb plltxe, you have the opportunity to use the pair san ... sìk. For example: Po poltxe san Ngaru tìyawr (sìk).
So far, I have always seen the pair after the verb. Therefore, does it implicitly mean that you can't say something like San Ngaru tìyawr sìk po poltxe?
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Wllìm

Good question! I can't remember ever seeing the quote before the verb either. On the other hand,  that doesn't immediately mean it's forbidden...

Tìtstewan

Hmmm, both could be possible, I would say. In English or in German we can do the same:

S/he said, You are right.
You are right, s/he said.

Er/sie sagte: "Du hast Recht."
"Du hast Recht", sagte er/sie.

San Ngaru tìyawr sìk po poltxe.
Po poltxe san Ngaru tìyawr sìk.


(Yes, I know, Na'vi =/= English or German :P)

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Kemaweyan

I can't find any examples with plltxe after san/sìk too, but I never thought that it could be incorrect :) There is free word order in Na'vi and sìk clearly indicates the and of a quote so there could not be any ambiguity. Actually it's similar to fpìl oel futa and a fì'ut fpìl oel - both are acceptable ;)
Nìrangal frapo tsirvun pivlltxe nìNa'vi :D

Tirea Aean

#4
I remember seeing this on the wiki years and years ago. :D

Here it is:

http://wiki.learnnavi.org/Canon#Extracts_from_various_emails

See Jan 21:

Quote from: Pawl[...]As for whether "X he said" would only use sìk and omit the initial san . . . I think that depends.

Example: Suppose in a conversation in English you said the following:

(1) "I'm planning to sell everything I have and move to Nepal, where I'm going to take up mountain climbing and flower arranging," he said.

Since your listeners can't see the quotation marks, would it be clear to them from the start that you're talking about someone else's plans, not your own? It probably depends heavily on the context. Come to think of it, though, (1) would be very unnatural in conversation, wouldn't it? You see that structure in written material all the time, but people don't speak that way. So "X he said" questions might be rare in discourse.[...]

So it looks like it's acceptable but rather rare to see something like San...sìk poltxe po. Which is exactly why you never really see it around. :)

Sorry for late. Just making my rounds catching up. :D


`Eylan Ayfalulukanä

This is pretty common in English, but such a construction is more appropriate for written texts. Since Na'vi is meant to be a spoken language, this is something that would likely be less common. But one place where you might see it more frequently is when short phrases are quoted-- San Za'u fìtseng sìk pamlltxe po The quoted speech markers make a construction like this less cumbersome to use in spoken text.

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emily2608

This is  a very useful post thank you for sharing!!!
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Vawmataw

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Toliman

Quote from: Vawmataw on June 11, 2020, 03:48:35 PM
Thanks for your answer! I've been waiting so long! ;) ;D
HRH... two year long waiting... you are very patient ;D